CONNECTIONS NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
By Cary Hamilton LMHC-S, RPT-S, NCC, CMHS, CDWF
June 4
Olympia Therapy & COVID19 Phase 2 We are continuing to do Telehealth primarily through June. Your clinician will be able to discuss this process with you. It is our goal to keep the clinic a healthy place to work and receive quality care. To do this we are going to move slowly. When you return to office you will have to sign a new consent acknowledging current risk factors. We ask you to please EMAIL our office at info@olympiatherapy.com for scheduling & communication as we can guarantee multiple people see email. If you have questions about billing, please email the front desk.
We have choices to make. Actions to take.
This week has been hard. We are 12 weeks into the stay-at-home-order. We are tired, we are restless, and we are longing for a “normal” summer break. We are longing for answers and a sense of what’s coming next. Not knowing our future is extremely challenging physically, psychologically, socially, and emotionally. This week has been hard, we did not know it could get harder. George Floyd’s death has made national and international news, thousands of people have taken to the streets across the country to express anger, frustration, and grief about police violence and injustice. The world is holding so much grief and anger right now. We have reached a tipping point in our society, and our children are watching... Resources & Full article here.
Helpful Reads & Links
Speaking to children about discrimination.
Explaining protests & racism.
Parent resources from APA
On Saturday 6/6, Sesame Street will have a special about Racism
Some wise words from Brenè Brown Doubling Down on Love.
COVID19 Phase 2 & 3 We are continuing to do Telehealth for now. As we move into phase 2 and 3, our office will slowly start to accommodate the highest need clients in office. Your clinician will be able to discuss this process with you. It is our goal to keep the clinic a healthy place to work and receive quality care. To do this we are going to move slowly. Telehealth will remain our primary mode of operating. We ask you to please EMAIL our office at info@olympiatherapy.com for scheduling & communication as we can guarantee multiple people see email. If you have questions about billing, please email the front desk.
Decision making hard these days?
Yes, We are on decision overload. Choices! All choices have consequences, ones we like and ones we don’t. However, not making a choice is a choice and often not the one we really want. After we have been managing stress now for weeks and recently even dropped down into hypo-arousal, our prefrontal cortex(the decision maker) is maxed out and inconsistent at best. Coming out of hypo-arousal means we are starting to move towards acceptance of our current situation yet, we are still tired. Making decisions seems an arduous task. We have TOO much information and are still functioning from a fear-based place. This makes decision making-challenging. Yet, we have to do it. We have become risk averse, we want to avoid any situation that requires us to make more decisions. Unfortunately, life is full of decision making everyday. It is understanding the consequences of the choices we are making during this time that I want us to focus on. Even under these circumstances we can strive to develop our resiliency during this time. Resilience is about making choices, making mistakes (or not liking the outcome), learning from it and making more productive choices for ourselves the next time. Which means paying attention to and not letting the default “I’ll deal with it later, or I just can’t right now” dictate our future outcomes. Consequences are simply the result of our choice- negative & positive. We make a choice when we stay up late, and/or watch screens before bed. The consequence is that we may have a poor night of sleep. Our choices in the moment do not get to dictate our lives. Our schedules and tasks that need to be accomplished do not go away because we made a choice that resulted in an uncomfortable consequence (like being exhausted). Some of our choices feel like they have small consequences. If you choose not to wash the dishes after dinner, the consequence is you have to do it later. You are in control of both the choice and the consequence. However, if you choose not to complete an assignment or show up for a work meeting, you face a consequence from another person, and you may not know what it is until after the choice is made. Some of our choices no longer feel like choices, because they have been built into habits during this stress filled time. A habit is formed when we make the same choice repeatedly, in response to a stressor/trigger. This can be positive or negative-- if we choose to eat a healthy nutritious breakfast, we are setting our bodies up for more healthy choices throughout the day. If we choose to watch TV all day instead of moving our bodies, we are faced with the consequence of feeling sluggish, we move into hypo-arousal and we don’t want to do anything. We just want to keep doing nothing, even though we know the consequence. So let’s pay attention to the present and the decisions we make every hour to have the consequences we choose. In this case what is easy definitely isn't what is better for you(this is usually the case for most things). Being mindful or our decision making process will help us to become more resilient to stress, which isn’t going away anytime soon! As we move out of the hypo-aroused space, let’s strive to make decisions with the consequences we choose. We can choose to make the habits that instill resilience in our daily functioning. We can take back some control. Here is what we tell Children & Adults on how to manage negative feelings & stress: Read our MAY Blog Post to learn more.
Helpful Reads...
Children grow when they play!
Go easy on you & your teen.
Be still a moment- you need it.
A feel good video- Squirrel!
Some wise words from Brenè Brown
MAY 20
COVID19 Phase 2 & 3 We are continuing to do Telehealth for now. As we move into phase 2 and 3, our office will slowly start to accommodate the highest need clients in office. Your clinician will be able to discuss this process with you. It is our goal to keep the clinic a healthy place to work and receive quality care. To do this we are going to move slowly. We ask you to please EMAIL our office at info@olympiatherapy.com for scheduling and communication as we can guarantee multiple people see email. We work to answer emails daily. If you have questions about billing, please email the front desk.
We know you are done! Here are some ideas to keep you sane.
We’ve been doing this for weeks and it feels like it’s never ending. It is HARD to parent, work, teach, care give and still be a human. Regulation is the key. We are in the same storm, but none of us are in the same boat. Every family has a different story right now and lives with different circumstances. Some families are worried about how to manage their next zoom meeting without their kids screaming in the background, some are struggling to find safe and adequate daycare while they provide an essential service, and others are worried about how to pay the bills and put food on the table after losing their job. No matter what your situation is, COVID-19 has affected you and we are all unders stress. This includes our children. Even the youngest of kids, who may be unaware of the details of COVID-19, still has a felt sense of the stress and anxiety that adults are carrying around with them during this time. No matter if your struggle is with paying the bills, getting through your next zoom meeting, getting your kids to finish their distance learning plan for the day, or just being tired of the people you are surrounded by - take a deep breath and remember that regulation is the key. If you can stay grounded, it will help and encourage those around you to stay grounded too (especially our kids!). This is a marathon and not a race - but there will be a finish line and when we cross it, we will all be changed. So take a deep breath, relax your muscles, and keep moving forward. For those who are managing school, they are giving out more assignments and students are falling behind. No one has the energy to show up or complete assignments right now and teachers are feeling the pressure to stay on top of things. As a reminder, your child will move on to the next grade level. The educational system won't fail your child for their performance during online school, they will all move forward. Only a few more weeks of school left! Your relationships are more important than the fight for schoolwork. Strive to not fall into the trap of parental shame occurring right now. Noone is living in your shoes, you do not need to defend yourself. Focus on self care for you and your family. That being said, there are strong consequences of letting all routines/structure fall apart, so here are some things you can do instead:
Connect with your family: play a board/card game, plan a movie night, make your own pizza/sundae night, have a nerf battle, do a science experiment, draw with sidewalk chalk, blow bubbles, eat dinner with chopsticks or opposite utensils! Get the joy juice pumping and counter the stress, have fun together!
Connect with friends: video calls, play a group game over video chat (ie., Skribbl is a free multiplayer drawing game), watch a movie over netflix party, plan a dinner party online, cook or bake together with a friend while video chatting, have someone you know teach you how to do something new (knitting?) over video or learn something new together by watching Youtube/”How to” videos together, virtual paint by numbers party.
Connect with yourself: write in a journal, meditate, make art, curl up with a good book, bake something, garden, color a mandala (https://www.free-mandalas.net), engage in sensory play.
Move your body: do yoga, play catch, see how fast you can run up a hill or around the backyard, have a race, practice cartwheels, make and run an obstacle course. Exercise helps to balance out our stress hormones (like cortisol), when stress gets too high it impacts our immune system. That means one of the best ways to keep our body safe from getting sick is to move our bodies regularly! The weather is getting warmer so it’s time to be creative to get outside to play!
Here is what we tell Children & Adults on how to manage negative feelings & stress: Read our MAY Blog Post to learn more.
Children need more play!
Go easy on yourself.
Be mindful of your diet during COVID
Have neurodiverse kids at home?
Zoom fatigue is real!
Some wise words from Brenè Brown on how language impacts our humanity.
May 9, 2020
MAY is:
MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS MONTH We are continuing to do Telehealth until June. Please connect with your clinician and have appointments scheduled. If you are referring someone for our services please have them email the front desk at info@olympiatherapy.com. If you have questions about billing, please email the front desk because due to billing changes your providers will not know the answers to your questions.
We ask you to please EMAIL our office at info@olympiatherapy.com for scheduling and communication as we can guarantee multiple people see email. We work to answer emails daily.
Feeling like Eeyore these days? We all are.
It has been over 50 days since the stay at home order was given. Our society has been running on adrenaline and cortisol for too long. Due to this, you may be experiencing the same as us, the tip over into hypoarousal. Hypoarousal is when the body begins to shut down psychologically, mentally, and physically. We have no energy to do anything, we have overall malaise and little to no motivation. Some may call it the “groundhog day effect,” in that we struggle to remember the day of the week, what we last ate, and our daily habits are unraveling around us even with our best intentions. You are not alone! Even the professionals are feeling it. This move to hypoarousal is a survival state. A way for our bodies to protect themselves from stress by shutting us down. It can make our days feel long, overwhelming, and irritating. Leaving us with feelings of depression. Depression is real and a reflection of our current emotional and physical state of being. Depression doesn’t have to get to clinical depression before it affects us. So many of us have been dealing with increased anxiety and worry for several weeks and now we have moved into this depressed blah state of being. Much like with anxiety, when depressed our goal is to move ourselves back into a regulated state- a functional state of being. So we need to move our bodies and engage our brains with baby steps towards health and function. Here is what we tell Children & Adults on how to fight those Eeyore feelings: Read our MAY Blog Post to learn more.
April 29, 2020
We are continuing to do Telehealth at this time. Please make sure you are connecting with your clinician and have appointments scheduled. We have opened up Telehealth appointments for new patients. If you are referring someone for our services please have them email the front desk to ensure we connect at info@olympiatherapy.com. If you have questions about billing, please email the front desk because due to billing changes your providers will not know the answers to your questions. We ask you to please EMAIL our office at info@olympiatherapy.com for scheduling and communication as we can guarantee multiple people see email. We work to answer emails daily.
Emotional Hijacking of Our Behaviors
Children’s mental health matters. During this time you may be seeing changes in behaviors and attitudes that are “not your child,” You may be wondering what happened and what to do? Children experience life with their whole body as they learn to integrate their life experiences into learning and memories. As we have now settled into a semi routine during this pandemic, children and adults are still experiencing daily high stressors and small traumas. This over time impacts both parent and child mental health functioning. It is important to know what mental health looks like in children because it is portrayed behaviorally, not verbally like adults would. The behaviors that arise may be not only concerning to you, they may also elicit anger and worry from you, which escalates your reactivity towards your child. Your desire to want to control is high, resulting in a cycle of screaming, crying, meltdown, timeouts, and blowups for everyone involved. Grown ups--it is our responsibility to role model stress management and this includes attuning to your own mental health as well. Children use their mirror neurons to establish neuronal links in their brains which create the functional patterns of how to respond to situations based on what they have learned. This means that children’s brains are copying their parent’s brains to learn how to regulate and cope with stress. This is why co-regulation between a parent and child is so important. A parent cannot expect a favorable behavioral response from a child when they themselves are unable to demonstrate the very same behavioral response. Self care is SO important for parents for this reason... Read more on our April Blog Post
Helpful Reads & Links
Did you know that breathing does really destress you, science says so!
Children will be protected if they are connected. From a School Psychologist!
Yes, we are repeating ourselves- SELF CARE MATTERS!
A great new podcast valuable during this time is Dr. Brenè Brown's new podcast Unlocking Us. You will find real world guidance and support on remaining true to our authentic selves and being connected with others during this crisis.
We are accepting referrals for new patients at this time for Telehealth.
Sensory Play!
Young children can dig in the dirt or sand moving the it from one side of thier body to another(think bucket or pile). Repeat to other side.
Older children can make Big Art. Tape a square box to the floor. Have the child stand in it in an create a full body movement image on a vertical surface(like a chalkboard). Encourage them to use both hands, big motions and twist their torso to get as far over as they can(think rainbows).
In General, get them moving like dancing, swinging, climbing, running, swim, bike play tennis, baseball, hopscotch, jumping rope, tug of war, and clapping games. All of these activities help to engage and integrate the body toward calm and regulation.
Thank You! Cary Hamilton
April 21, 2020
We are continuing to do Telehealth at this time. Please make sure you are connecting with your clinician and have appointments scheduled. We have opened up Telehealth appointments for new patients. If you are referring someone for our services please have them email the front desk to ensure we connect at info@olympiatherapy.com.
If you have questions about billing, please email the front desk because due to billing changes your providers will not know the answers to your questions.
We ask you to please EMAIL our office at info@olympiatherapy.com for scheduling and communication as we can guarantee multiple people see email. We work to answer emails daily.
Routines & Schedules Promote Security
One of the most challenging things about this "stay at home" order is the disruption of our daily life and schedules. We have often taken for granted how schedules and routines help us feel safe and secure because of the predictability and structure they give our daily lives. Many of use struggle and even joke about not knowing the day of the week, whether we have eaten lately, or know the time. We remove this structure for vacations, which are time limited, and we also do that by CHOICE! We did not get to choose our current forced schedule change. The longer we remain functioning in this unknown, our bodies and brains will begin to feel disconnected, and this disconnection from self, time, and place creates biological panic for humans. Our natural "alert" systems start going off and we begin becoming agitated, irritable, make poor choices, become lethargic and indifferent. This arousal state is manageable if you can support yourself and family to follow a schedule or routine that mimics in some way what your mind and body were used to. Remembering to eat healthy, drink water, exercise, have quiet time, & play are things we keep repeating- because WE KNOW THEY MAKE A DIFFERENCE! Adults can think logically about this change and choose behaviors more appropriate and suited for this shift in behavior. Children on the other hand cannot shift so easily. They need support and role modeling from the adults around them. In our sessions as of late, we have noticed increased anxiety, irritability, and general "whatever" -like attitude. So we created a visual schedule for you to use for the family or children in your home. You may say, "they know what to do" however, having guidance and a visual input allows for mimicking of a classroom setting "daily agenda's" children are used to seeing resulting in less power struggles between you and your child. You can see the samples below and we will post a PDF file for you to have as well. Visual schedules are guidelines to help create a sense of structure and routine throughout the day, which fosters healthy brain and body development. Self care at its best is done with consistency,so let's get everyone on the same page. This is just an example and we have provided you with alternate icons to cut and paste your preferred schedule. Of course you can get creative and make your own schedule or icons! Our goal is to provide support in the areas we see need. Remember, schools are not grading work, they are monitoring work. A child in Elementary school should only be doing 45min of school-like work a day. For Middle school, it is 60min per week per class, and High school is 90min a week per class. The most important thing is for students to check-in on their google classrooms daily so teachers can take attendance for funding and show some work completed through the week. Remember, we are in a state of trauma, and children and parents are feeling the effects of this daily. Teachers are also experiencing anxiety that comes across from the load of work they giving to students. We can't fault them, they are responding to trauma as well! A child wisely said, "I think my teacher is stressed, and I'm not taking on that stress, I have enough of my own. I will do what I can do." To this we stated "Yes!" Your relationship with your child is more important than their education right now. Do what you can do with the least amount of struggle. Having a schedule and routine will assist with decreasing stress & improving family relationships.
Helpful Reads & Links!
Let's get outside and ground ourselves, when you have antsy kids try this.
Learning happens in PLAY! An article from head of play at LEGO
Parenting a Teen during the COVID19 is very challenging, and knowing how it is impacting their mental health is very important. Read this article to learn more.
Please don't try and make pandemic stress the "new Normal," trauma is not normal!
A great new podcast valuable during this time is Dr. Brenè Brown's new podcast Unlocking Us. You will find real world guidance and support on remaining true to our authentic selves and being connected with others during this crisis.
We are accepting referrals for new patients at this time for Telehealth.
Sensory Play!
Our biggest organ is our skin and it provides constant feedback to our brains to inform them of our bodies safe surroundings. Skin-to-skin contact is regulating as well as climbing into comfy close spaces. Have you noticed your children building forts from couch cushions or opting to be under the table? This is them meeting their need of close contact and safe surroundings. Hugglepods (see above) are helpful for children to have multiple senses met (tactile, vestibular, & proprioceptive). As tactile is a foundation sense, when it is on high alert or seeking safety, children will do anything to get this regulation need met! Think hugs, wrestling, climbing on you, demanding attention, hitting siblings, and climbing into places. Finding a way to make sure children have soft cozy (possibly enclosed) spaces to read a book, have quiet time, and play with toys will help them to regulate more regularly. When a child is regulated, they behave developmentally on target, making parenting less challenging. If you are interested in learning more about this, I encourage you to visit our integrative parenting program Playful Wisdom. Here are the Links for Sensory Box Subscriptions. Child Sensory Theraplay Box & Sensory Box: Regulate & Relax
APRIL 15, 2020
TeleMental Health For Now
A new week is here! Schools will be on distance learning for the rest of the school year. This likely spiked some anxiety for parents as now your stress may have increased. My family is in the same boat! My husband is a teacher so now he has to teach his students as well as keep a 4th and 1st grader on task! No matter the skill or training this is almost impossible. So I wanted to tell you all what I told him. If it is stressing your relationship with your child to do all a teacher is asking, DO NOT feel the pressure of doing it all. You will not be failing your child or hurting their academics. You are not a teacher, you are a PARENT. The GOAL is to have an intact thriving relationship at the end of the stressful time. The most important task you have is to nurture your relationship with your child and to be connected with them during this time of uncertainty. When a family is stressed emotions become entangled with negative thoughts which often leads to regrettable actions. You can not fault yourself for reacting in the way your body was made to do when under distress. Your body will always take over, and your brain is then taken "offline," much to our chagrin. “We are feeling beings that sometimes think” says Brenè Brown. We have to recognize that our emotions are present for a reason! They assist us in keeping safe and allow us to love and be connected with those around us. We do not get to choose our emotions, we only have control over how we respond to them. There is a difference between reacting and responding, the key is that responding requires us to have clear thoughts. Thoughts come from our cortex or higher brain functioning. This part of our brain goes “offline” when our emotions are too intense. We are all more likely to have brains go “offline” due to the epidemic and added stress to our daily lives and future. We must remember this unique survival feature we humans have, and learn to slow down, calm our body, and think through decisions, problems, and emotions before opening our mouths or taking action. You will be much more content with the result if you learn to respond more and react less. This is all part of understanding your mental health is a part of your physical health, they are completely linked. While we focus on keeping ourselves physically healthy, we can fall into the trap or forgetting about our mental health. This epidemic is a trauma that we all will experience and share. Our collective and individual mental health will be impacted, you can not deny or escape this truth. While your depression and anxiety may not reach clinical levels, it certainly will impact your functioning and interpersonal relationships. Humans are meant to be connected and living in love and empathy. Addressing mental health for you and your family, now and in the future, is necessary to prevent unintended consequences for the things you love most in the future. Parents, your "teacher" role, your goal should be to achieve: 30min of reading, 30min of math facts, writing in a journal-a question of the day, physical movement for 60min, 30 min of quiet time, and 30min of Playing with YOU! Allow for lots of free play and no more than 2hrs of free screen time daily. If you can manage this you will be doing great, here is a guide! Teachers are struggling too; so if you are getting mixed messages, work to not react and give them some time to figure things out. Make sure you reach out for assistance from schools for technology assistance, food, and other resources they have. You only need to contact your child's school to gain access to this information. You are not an educator or technology expert, you are there to support your student. If this role becomes a power struggle or emotionally tasking, take a break, make a plan tomorrow to get the minimum mentioned above done, lower your expectations for you and your student. Your student is used to routines in school, helping them to establish this same feeling with only the tasks above in the plan will help immensely. If you have a child with an IEP/504 plan, reach out to the special education teachers for applications, websites, and arrangements for their needs. You cannot do it all, however, there are resources available to possibly make things smoother. Remember you are not an educator, you are a parent and this is your MAIN focus right now. Be connected! We are continuing to do Telehealth at this time. Please make sure you are connecting with your clinician and have appointments scheduled. We will be opening up telehealth appointments for new patients this week. If you are referring someone for our services please have them email the front desk to ensure we connect at info@olympiatherapy.com. If you have questions about billing, please email the front desk because due to billing changes your providers will not know the answers to your questions. We ask you to please EMAIL our office at info@olympiatherapy.com for scheduling and communication as we can guarantee multiple people see email. We work to answer emails daily.
Helpful Reads & Links!
Just one friend? Here is an article to help you and others to understand the true power of physical distance while staying socially connected.
The Association for Play Therapy just released this announcement about the use of Play Therapy and PTSD benefits.
A link to picture books to help explain the COVID19 epidemic in their terms from non-profits and organizations for children isolated at home.
A great resource for parenting anxious children can be found on child mind.org.
A great new podcast valuable during this time is Dr. Brenè Brown's new podcast Unlocking Us. You will find real world guidance and support on remaining true to our authentic selves and being connected with others during this crisis.
Sensory Play!
Our sense of smell "Olfactory" can quickly reach the emotional centers of our brain and regulate our bodies in to calmer states. Smell is the fastest neuronal link in our brains to memories and emotions in our bodies. Just as adverse scents(like smoke) can fuel our anxiety, we can use calming scents to regulate us. Some of these may be used with intention to regulate all members in our homes. This can be done through candles, diffusers, and baking! These could include: lavender, vetiver, citrus, vanilla, jasmine, peppermint, chamomile, cinnamon, and many others. You choose! think of all the ways you can use scent around you? Putting on a favorite lotion, make coffee/tea, cinnamon bark and vanilla in a pot on the stove, making cookies, diffusing into the air, walking outside to smell nature, use a spray bottle of essential oil and water, take a bath with bath salts and many more. Even those allergic to certain scents can still benefit from those they are not allergic to. Be mindful of what is best for your family, and know that scent can calm us quickly. If you are looking for essential oils here are some we use: Doterra, Young Living, Revive.
Some of you still may be interested in these Sensory Box Subscriptions.
Here are the Links! Child Sensory Theraplay Box & Sensory Box: Regulate & Relax
APRIL 8th 2020
TeleMental Health Ensures Your Health! With the extension of "shelter in place" and schools moving to distance learning for the rest of this school year, we will be continuing with TeleMental Health to ensure everyone's physical and mental health. We can not guarantee that everyone is using the same level of social distancing necessary to stop the spread of COVID19 and we work with vulnerable populations therefore, this will remain the main modality of mental health treatment for our clinic. Many of you have already engaged this service and others have been more unsure. We can acknowledge it is awkward and different at first, however it maintains your medical care and mental health in the safest form. We are asking current clients to connect with and use this modality for their ongoing treatment as we can not predict nor want to promise when our physical office will open again. We will be opening up appointments for new patients next week, to fill availabilities and meet the needs of our community. We cannot guarantee your traditional appointments will remain reserved for you with your provider. So, current clients please engage this modality for your mental wellness. This option ensures your mental health needs are being met for you and your family now and in the future. If you have questions about billing, please email the front desk because due to billing changes your providers will not know the answers to your questions. We ask you to please EMAIL our office at info@olympiatherapy.com for scheduling and communication as we can guarantee multiple people see email. We work to answer emails daily.
Helpful Reads From Our Playful Wisdom Blog!
We could all use a reminder on what self care really looks like, although it may be hard to do, it is necessary for your survival at this time. Learn more here: The Truth About "Self Care."
Finding ways to stay connected in a healthy and developmentally driven way with your child is imperative when stress in the home and life increases. Cary speaks to this connection here: Opening The Gateway To Connection
All parents and humans are struggling right now. Learning about the window of tolerance and self regulation are key to thriving, we speak to this here: What Does a Parent Do When They Don't Know What To Do?
Sleep is essential for physical and mental well-being, however in this time of stress, disrupted routines sleep is often the first thing we struggle with and for kids even more so! Find out more about sleep here: Bedtime Battles & Sleep Solutions
Doing crisis, trauma occurs at many levels learning skills to truly "be with" your child and other family members will help them to develop resiliency and thrive as we move forward. Here is how: "Being With" Your Child Develops Their Resiliency
Sensory Play!
Adding Sensory Play to your daily activities fosters health brain-body connections that help to regulate our bodies when stressed. Engaging in these activities together, increases connection and often brings about laughter which is "joy juice" for relationships. Enjoying playful activities with sensory components can help to regulate our stressed minds & bodies. I am often asked where I get my fun sensory toys, so I became an affiliate to share my fun! If you are interested in these Sensory Box Subscriptions Here are the Links! Child Sensory Theraplay Box & Sensory Box: Regulate & Relax
APRIL 1, 2020
Using your TeleMental Health Option As guidelines for social distancing continue, we want to recommend you utilize Telehealth or Telemedicine. Many have asked what is Telehealth? By definition; Telehealth is the use of digital communication technologies, such as computers and mobile devices, to access health care services remotely and manage your health care. These may be technologies you use from home or that your doctor uses to improve or support health care services. We use a Telehealth platform based in our electronic health record(EHR) called Simple Practice. Your medical records are already held on this platform that is HIPAA compliant and up-to-date in medical information storage and compliance. Through this platform we can video conference with you from your computer or mobile phone. It is completely confidential and encrypted for your safety. Although we know this can be awkward and different at first, we are using this modality to do our part to maintain social distancing and still uphold your medical care and mental health. If your child is too young for Telehealth appointments, this is a wonderful time for parents to be receiving Child Parent Relationship Skills, that everyone at Olympia Therapy is trained in. At this time we are requesting you engage this modality for your mental wellness. This option ensures your mental health needs are being met for you and your family. If you are finding that stress is low and you are no longer in need of services, we request you let your provider know so that we can open up space for new clients in need of mental health services. We ask you to please EMAIL our office at info@olympiatherapy.com for scheduling and communication as we can guarantee multiple people see email. We work to answer emails daily.
Stressing about school??
Many of you have reached out to get our thoughts on homeschooling during this pandemic. I would like to explain our thoughts and beliefs on this topic (which may contradict ideas of educators, my husband is one!) as it is important for parents to understand how a child’s brain is functioning right now.
A human's brain is not capable of learning or retaining anything learned when under a state of stress and distress. Notable neuroscientists in the field explain that if your brain is being flooded by stress hormones, it's capacity to work is solely that of survival. It is only when the stress is lifted that a brain can learn. What a child's brain learns during a crisis, it will not be remembered or stored in the memory for future use. What the child's brain (and adult brain) is seeking right now is connection. The more connected and loved a child feels during crisis the more protected it is from long lasting impacts of stress and trauma. In our last blog, we spoke to this time being "not normal," we don't want pandemics and stress to be "the normal." What we do want, is for our children's brains to continue to grow and have the ABILITY to LEARN, when the crisis is over. This can only be done by encouraging the brain's resiliency now by fostering healthy loving connections during the stressful time. If you are finding that doing the educational assignments put out by your child's teacher is creating power struggles and strife in your home- STOP! It is not worth it, you are a parent not an educator. Work to repair your relationship by reconnecting and doing fun engaging activities together. This repair is essential for healthy brain development. If your child enjoys the educational materials by all means have them work on it. When/If it is causing stress, emotional turmoil, and power struggles then it has become harmful for your child's brain and rupture is occurring in your parent-child relationship. This is unnecessary trauma during a traumatic event. Currently, there is NO grading of any educational material put out by school districts in WA state. It is SOLELY for skill up keep. Your child should be reading some, doing some math facts, and learning age appropriate life skills. Skill Up Keep is the Goal! The key skills your child need are: emotion regulation, social connections, and strengthening relationships with grown ups. Have them learn new things around the home that are life skills like laundry, making beds, making lunch, and caring for pets. Life skills are often missed in the rush of daily life. Take this time to help them learn skills that will go beyond the classroom environment. Try activities that challenge your child’s problem solving skills and that you can do together: build a fort, finish a puzzle, make a ramp for toy cars, move from one side of the room to the other without touching the floor, create an obstacle course. Formal education can wait! A child can catch up in their education, they can't thrive without Connection & Relationship.
Sensory Play Idea
Ooblek (a non-newtonian fluid): 1.5 cups cornstarch 1 cup water 2 drops food coloring (mix in with water) Adding Sensory Play to your daily activities fosters health brain-body connections that help to regulate our bodies when stressed. Engaging in these activities together, increases connection and often brings about laughter which is "joy juice" for relationships. Above is Ooblek, which is a "non-Newtonian fluid" meaning; it can be in a different state (liquid or solid) depending on pressure/force it receives. Paying attention to our "state of being" is often how we need to be during crisis, paying attention to the pressure and the results on our state of mind & body. We need to remember, we have control over how we respond to pressure and stress. Enjoying playful activities with sensory components can help to regulate our stressed minds & bodies. Try this one out today!
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